1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is for health care devices, and more particularly pertains to a water/foam wheelchair pad for supporting a person in a wheelchair.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior wheelchair pads consist of flexible enclosures in which fill support material such as foam, beaded foam, wire strings and other like material, is contained. Some of these fill materials, while initially offering comfortable support to the posterior of a wheelchair user, eventually assume a packed down state where the fill material packs down or migrates to the side of the areas which formerly offered gentle support. When this occurs, little comfort and aid to a person using the wheelchair is offered. Determining the correct amount of fill material for the pad according to the size and weight of the person also persists as a problem. If the person soiled the wheelchair pad, the interior would soak up waste effluent, thus contaminating the fill material, at which point the fill material would have to be cleaned or discarded and the entire covering washed or laundered, if not thrown out.
Clearly, what is needed is a wheelchair pad which is convenient for all users, which has a stable non-migrating fill material which is non-contaminatable, and which offers proper and even support over the entire support surface.